Friday, July 29, 2011

How big a harvest?

kw: gardening

I braved the 95 degree (35 C) heat to harvest this afternoon. The heat wave, plus a rainstorm right in the middle, has the tomatoes going wild! on prior days, I could pick a bowl of tomatoes every second day. This is in accord with past years. Today I got three bowls of four varieties.

Besides the extra heat (and we're keeping the plants watered, but letting the lawn brown over), there is one added element this year. Right after the plants were established, about early June, I found a bag (one lb, or .45 kg) of Miracle Gro fertilizer. Fortunately it had directions for a hose-end sprayer, so I used about a third of it on the garden. It got blue stains all over my hands when I was mixing it up, but they washed out. I have a very high section of rabbit fence along one side, and they've reached the top, about nine feet (2.8m).

In the picture, the small ones are Sweet 100, our favorite cherry tomato variety. The medium ones at the right are Early Girl, which began producing about ten days ago. The largest ones at the left are Better Boy, the most fungus resistant of the beefsteak varieties. In with them is one cluster of Roma, an oval shaped tomato that is the best for cooking. Sitting atop the cherry tomatoes are three purple sweet peppers. So far, of three plants (all different), this is the only one to produce anything.

I weighed this harvest: twelve pounds (5.5 kg). We can get tomatoes right through September, so we stand a good chance of a 300-pound (135 kg) year. It's a good thing we have lots of friends who like tomatoes!